Monthly Archives: December 2014

Unshaken Mountain

Psalm 125; 2 Kings 2:9-22; Acts 3:17-4:4

Psalm 125

Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, 


which cannot be shaken but endures forever.

As the mountains surround Jerusalem,


so the Lord surrounds his people


both now and forevermore.

The scepter of the wicked will not remain


over the land allotted to the righteous,


for then the righteous might use


their hands to do evil.

Lord, do good to those who are good,


to those who are upright in heart.

But those who turn to crooked ways


the Lord will banish with the evildoers.

Peace be on Israel!

TRUST IN GOD

                                   Love                                                                  Grace

                       pray                                 good    mercy                               Faith

              Just                                 everlasting       watchful                             safe

Follow              forgiveness                     resilient                  honest                  Patient

E  M  B  R  A  C  E

surrounded           by           His           presence      

dependable                                        fortified                                        immovable

Protected         Foundation

Come, Lord Jesus, Come.

Offered on December 16 by Heidi, Alex, and Jonathon Marcotte, loving family, sharers of words, children of God

If the Shoe Fits…

Psalm 125; I Kings 18:1-18; Ephesians 6:10-17

As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. Ephesians 6:15

I don’t spend much time thinking about or shopping for shoes. Altogether I have: winter boots, canvas summer sneakers and walking sneakers, black flats and boots and heels, cordovan loafers, brown leather outdoor boots, an off white pair of pumps, and blue slippers. Most were bought at LLBean or Bass Shoe Outlet. They are comfortable, last a long time, and get me out the door for any occasion or activity.

Each day, I choose my shoes to fit the weather, terrain, and expected activity – boots for snow, loafers for a day in the city, heels for dressy occasions. Choosing the right footwear makes my day easier; the wrong shoes make every part of my day more difficult, painful even. So simple a choice with such immediate consequences.

Perhaps that’s why no particular shoe is listed in the full armor of God. What makes me ready to proclaim the gospel of peace depends upon a particular situation, not just a general capability or category. I want something that gets my feet moving in the right direction, that provides traction, and keeps me from tripping over my own feet. Metaphorically flexible, with plenty of support.

I’d better make sure to take the shield of faith, too. Without that, the shoes that make me ready to proclaim the gospel may also help me run away from the place I need to proclaim it.

Come, Lord Jesus, Come.

Offered on December 15, 2014.

Dark

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11; Luke 1:46b-55; I Thessalonians 5:16-24; John 1:6-8, 19-28

“WHEN IT IS DARK ENOUGH YOU CAN SEE THE STARS” –an old Persian saying

“There came a man, sent from God, whose name was John. He came for a witness, that he might bear witness of the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came that he might bear witness of the light. …He said, ‘I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness…”

(John 1: 6-8, 23).

Our lives begin in the dark and they’ll end in the dark. During the interim, most of us try to avoid the “dark.” We run from the darkness of conflict, fear and humiliation. We experience great pain in our lives as we lose family members or other loved ones, and it is difficult to deal with it. Change is scary and so we tend to postpone making big decisions. We know that loneliness is inevitable at some point in our lives, but usually we run away from it rather than embrace it.

Deep reflection on this passage reveals that it is in the “dark” where spiritual growth occurs. “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (John 12:24). Paradoxically, as we come to a place of reconciliation with that part of ourselves that does not like the dark, our true and whole spiritual self “hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3) emerges. As we grow in the dark, we are able to bear witness to the light. John of the cross called it “luminous darkness.”

John O’Donohue, an Irish priest and poet, captured the idea in the following excerpt from a blessing he wrote entitled “For Light:”

Light cannot see inside things.

That is what the dark is for:

Minding the interior,

Nurturing the draw of growth

Through places where death

In its own way turns into life.

And when we come to search for God,

Let us first be robed in night.

As we live into experiences of pain, fear, disappointment and challenge, and even somehow with God’s grace learn to welcome them, we know we are in the chrysalis of the night. It is then we hear John’s voice crying in the wilderness for Christ’s coming. It is our voice, too.

Offered on December 14, 2014, by Bryan Fredrickson, contemplative thinker, lawyer, child of God.

YET

Psalm 126; Habakkuk 3:13-19; Matthew 21:28-32

Though the fig tree does not blossom and no fruit is on the vines; though the produce of the olive fails and the field yields no food; though the flock is cut off from the fold, and there is no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, and makes me tread upon the heights.

Habakkuk 3:17-19

Habakkuk was a prophet in the late seventh and early sixth centuries BCE. It was a time of great turmoil in Jerusalem and of many great injustices in the world. In many ways like in our own world, the question arises, “Where is God’s justice?” Why do the poor suffer while the powerful go unpunished for their misdeeds? Why do bad things happen to good people? Perhaps we ask the wrong questions. Is it up to us to criticize God? Or is it possible that there is something else going on?

Perhaps we have a role in bringing God’s kingdom into our world. Over and over again, in both the Old and New Testaments, we are reminded that our God wills a world of righteousness and justice, a world with compassion for the poor and the sick, a world of peace and love. Sometimes we are depressed by what we see in the events of our time. We feel helpless to make things better. Habakkuk foresaw great troubles coming to Jerusalem in the form of warring nations. He knew that times were going to be rough. “YET I will rejoice in the God of my salvation!”

There are times in our own lives when we feel helpless. We do not have control over what is happening. Jobs are lost. Relationships fail. Illness consumes us or someone we love. YET, in all of the sadness and violence, God is beside us, loving us, guiding us, helping us. As we look back on some of the dark times in our life, so often we see God at work picking up the pieces for us and helping us get through to a brighter side of the darkness.

And there is the answer: God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, with us always. In the darkness or the light, as Julian of Nowich reminds us “All shall be well.”

Lord Jesus, let our minds rest in your Word, so that when doubt and grief would overwhelm us, faith will open our eyes to see your hand at work in our life and enable us to turn toward the future with hope and toward each other in perfect charity.” A Prayer from St. Augustine.

Offered on December 13, 2014, by Marge O’Brien, retired teacher now worshipping at St. David’s Episcopal ChurchIn North Chesterfield Virginia, steadfast pray-er, child of God.

Shaken

Psalm 126; Habakkuk 3:2-6; Philippians 3:12-16

The Lord stopped and shook the earth; he looked and made the nations tremble. The eternal mountains were shattered; along his ancient pathways the everlasting hills sank low. (Habakkuk 3:6)

When God comes into our lives, what happens? The Bible is full of stories about exactly that. There are burning bushes, clouds, pillars of fire, wrestling in the night, and strangers dropping by for dinner. Then there are the earth shaking, brilliant light in heaven appearances. The coming of the Lord is glorious. This is exactly what we expect: spectacular and overwhelming evidence of God’s power.

Then we get to the last line of Habakkuk’s prayer: the eternal mountains are shattered. Along his ancient pathways the everlasting hills sink low. The eternal places and roads of God are gone. We can’t find them in the rubble and there are no landmarks to guide us. We are lost.

Advent is something coming into creation that has never been – God with us in human form. No earthquakes, just angels and shepherds seeking a baby. God comes to us in this child Jesus. We see in him the way to our eternal home. Hope and glory are ours in the coming of Jesus. We live in God “because Christ Jesus has made us his own.” When we find the stable, we find God.

Come, Lord Jesus, Come.

Offered on December 12, 2014.

About Something More

Psalm 126; Habakkuk 2:1-5; Philippians 3:7-11

Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Philippians 3:7-11

Advent is a hard season. It is often said that the darkest time of the night is that time just before the sunrise. This is how I understand Advent. Today’s scriptures compel us to ask this one piercing question of ourselves: “What am I really about?”

As a young man, Paul had it all: status, brilliance; pride; great leadership skills; perhaps even good looks. But like most of us who have lived long enough to have tempered that unbridled spirit of idealism, there was a recognition within himself, that he really wanted and needed to be about something more. Paul’s moment came while he was walking the road to Damascus, mine came after a rather prolonged midlife crisis. We are not gods and we ultimately do not control our own destinies, death makes certain of that. But what we do have is a benevolent master in Jesus who loves us more than we can ever love ourselves, who comes to us in the midst of the darkness and says, “I have you in my arms and I will never let you go.”

You see, Paul wanted nothing less than this absolute and complete communion with his master Jesus. In fact, he wanted it more than life itself. What about you? Do you trust that you are held in love through the darkest of nights and the most treacherous of storms? What are you about? What do you want to be about? I hope we can all sit with these questions this Advent as we all await the coming sunrise.

Come, Lord Jesus, Come.

Offered on December 11, 2014, by Dave Fredrickson, priest, spiritual director, asker of questions, child of God.

Surprise

copy-copy-annunciationHOTanner.jpgPsalm 27; Malachi 2:10-3:1; Luke 1:5-17

Like Mary, Elizabeth in Luke 1: 5-17 was confronted with a big surprise when she discovered at her advanced age that she was to bear a child, John the Baptist, as was Abraham’s wife Sarah who was even older when she became pregnant. So our God not only is full of surprises but apparently has a marvelous sense of humor. I tried to picture these three women in my mind and imagination receiving such news: Sarah as amused, Elizabeth as shocked and Mary as bewildered at her young age. But then, as we know, all things are possible with God – even the impossible. Wouldn’t all these women be asking themselves: “Why me?” “Why now?”

Since I couldn’t find a picture of a surprised Sarah or Elizabeth for you to study and meditate on, I am providing a copy of a painting of Mary having just received the news of her becoming the mother of God as depicted by H. O. Tanner in a painting which hangs in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Put yourself in this scene if you can. Try to imagine what she and her older cousin might be feeling. How would you feel? Who would you tell? What would you say?

What a surprise to discover that God surprises you when you least expect it; when you expect the opposite or expect nothing at all. Just when you feel that you are unworthy, lacking, “barren” with nothing much to give, indeed, you shall give because the God of surprises always wills it for you and from you. Elizabeth will bear John who will announce Jesus to the world. Mary will bear Jesus who will announce God’s love for the universe and each of these babies will be born to women who were blessed with God’s wonderful gift of surprise. How has God surprised you?

Come, Lord Jesus, Come.

Offered on December 10, 2014, by Dave Fowler, counsellor, active listener, child of God.

 

Seeing, Thinking, and Acting Differently

Psalm 27; Isaiah 4:206; Acts 11:1-18

Pondering Acts 11:1-18

Advent is about more than getting ready for a baby to be born. I am expecting two new grandchildren in March – just two weeks apart. I know what expectant parents and grandparents go through, especially first-time parents, as one of my sons will be. As wondrous and challenging as that kind of expecting can be, the expecting of Advent is about something altogether different. The presence of a baby changes countless things in the lives of his or her parents. The presence of God changes everything in the world.

Peter is a great example of what happens when God is present. Acts 11:1-18 offers one of many examples of the radical change this encounter brings. What was unclean is now clean. What was forbidden is now embraced. What could not be seen or thought about is being done. Deep and profound change has extended the love and grace of God to more people. And, I’m willing to bet, as faithful as Peter had been, he came to understand and experience the love of God more fully, too.

This is one of the reasons we need Advent, I think. What we are about to experience is so radically different from the normal, everyday routine of our living that unless we prepare ourselves for it we won’t be able to handle it. Christmas will come and go and we’ll be no different than we were before. Advent is a season to get ready – to see differently, to think differently, to act differently because God is here.

Come, Lord Jesus.

Offered December 9, 2014, by Jeff Jones, Director of Ministry Studies and Associate Professor of Ministerial Leadership at Andover Newton Theological School, child of God.

 

Pace, Pain, Peace

Psalm 27; Isaiah 26:7-15; Acts 2:37-42

WAITING

“…I stay my haste, I make delays–

For what avails this eager pace?

I stand amid the eternal ways

And what is mine shall know my face…”

John Burroughs

A few years ago, my husband and I attended a conference focused on showcasing and celebrating the second half of life. What I mainly took away from this teaching was that our contemporary culture does not value elders; rather, it focuses its attention and veneration on youth. I’ve spent the last 27 years parenting three children and the last 13 years teaching middle school students, so I certainly have actively participated in supporting youth myself. However, today’s readings have encouraged me to look at my own inner house as a fifty-something and to ask the questions the Scriptures ask: Whom [or what] should I fear or dread [ as I enter the second half of life]? Who [or what] will be of help to me, will give me courage and the desires of my of my soul [as I face the inevitable losses and richness of the years beyond youth]? In meditating on these questions, what comes to me is trifold.

First, Pace. It must slow down. I struggle to quiet myself enough to hear the still voice within. This challenge goes beyond embracing my monkey brain during meditation. It infiltrates every area of my life. How can I enable myself to do a household chore with calm mindfulness and focused attention when exterior demands are unrelentingly clamoring for my attention? At what point/age, does attending to them abate? The answer, I’ve decided, lies with me. What I allow, continues. What I resist, persists.

Next, Pain. Like most Americans, I resist facing painful situations. Sometimes I am stricken by how much energy I am willing to put into avoiding feeling discomfort rather than simply accepting its entrance, having the experience, learning what it has come to teach me, and moving on through it. I am hopeful that as opportunities present themselves in the second half of my life for me to do all of the above, I will have the wisdom, patience, awareness, and time to allow my heart to be pierced.

Finally, Peace. Striving has worn me out. I want to BE. I am a human being, not a human doing. As the epigraph of this post mentions, “standing amid the eternal ways” helps bring on a perspective that promotes peace. I highly recommend you read the entire poem, especially if you, like me, are transitioning with awareness into a crone mindset, cultivating your life experiences to yield deeper feelings of inner peace.

Today, and for the rest of my life I will strive to deliberately slow my living pace, enfold and learn from the pain that comes to me, and be thankful for the peace that resides in an examined and heartfelt life. Amen.

Offered on December 8, 2014, by Jill Fredrickson, observer, teacher, nurturer of the spirit, child of God.

Flesh and Stone

Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13; Ezekiel 36:24-28; Mark 11:27-33

I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

Isaiah 38:24-26

A heart of stone can be whittled away by water over time, pounded into dust with a sledgehammer, and melted in a volcano. It can crumble into sand or split into brittle layers. Stones are great for building walls, but not for sustaining human life. There is no heartbeat in a stone, no growth.

A heart of flesh takes in the joys and pains of this world. It can expand to include others, and can contract if hurt. It moves blood through the body. Sometimes the heart loves so well that it will give up its own life for the life of another. Tears and laughter reside here.

A heart of flesh is aways connected to God, always connected to God’s beloved creatures and God’s expanding universe. It feels agony and joy and everything in between. A heart of flesh plants us in this world and draws us into God’s embrace at the same time. God gives us a heart of flesh whenever we permit it, as individuals and as the whole human family.

We’ve also been given God’s heart – wrapped in swaddling clothes, walking on water, multiplying loaves and fish, dying and rising. Jesus, Emmanuel, God’s heart with us.

Come, Heart of God, come.

Offered on December 6, 2014.